Chapter X ACROSS THE SEA
by Tamadoc
Summary: Yes, I think Professor Tolkien finished The Lord of the Rings too soon. Here, therefore, is the real end of the story of the Ring and the Fellowship.


Yes, I think Professor Tolkien finished The Lord of the Rings too soon; I always have to flick through the appendicies when I reach the end of his last chapter, so I can read the rest of the story. Therefore, I have decided to write what I see as the real last chapter.

Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own the copyright for The Lord of the Ring, nor do I own any of the characters herein, or their world. In fact, I don't even own the ideas and, indeed, a good dozen of the sentences are Professor Tolkien's own words. This, therefore, is more of a compilation and dramatisation of what Professor Tolkien saw fit to merely summarise in the appendices. Although I call it the last chapter, it's written more in the style of the appendices than the story. This is purely because it's an easier style to mimic. Anyway, here is the real end of the story of the Ring and the Fellowship.

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Chapter X

ACROSS THE SEA

The years that followed brought peace and happiness to Samwise and to the Shire, and when old Will Whitefoot resigned as Mayor in the year 1427, Samwise was elected to succeed him. In that year too, King Elessar issued an edict that Men are not to enter the Shire, and he made it a Free Land under protection of the Northern Scepter. When seven years later, Peregrin became the Took and Thain, King Elessar made the Thain, the Master of Buckland, now Meriadoc Brandybuck, and the Mayor, to which position Samwise was elected for the second time, Counsellors of the North-kingdom, and for many years after he took counsel with the three hobbits and shared many a beer and a pipe when his duties permitted.

On one such evening, when King Elessar and Queen Arwen dwelt for a time by Lake Evendim in the North, he greeted his friends by the Brandywine Bridge. The old Bridge Inn had been rebuilt greater and finer than before, and the King was received with as much splendor as the Shire could muster. Singing and laughing continued long into the night, and hobbit children, given leave to stay up long after they should have been in bed in honour of the occasion, ran about the feet of the King's Company and played games with the Knights of Gondor who had accompanied him.

Peregrin was amazed when he looked into the face of one knight and saw someone he knew, and he cried, "Beregond! How is it you come to be here? Did you not return with Prince Faramir to Ithilien?"

The man laughed. "Indeed he did, but I am not he, but his son Bergil with whom you watched the coming of the armies into Minas Tirith." And Peregrin saw that it was the boy grown to manhood and talked long with him of Gondor and of Faramir.

The King's Company stayed but a short whiles at the edge of the Shire, and did not enter it. As they made ready to depart, King Elessar called Mayor Samwise and his family to him, and gave to him a shining jewel. All about it was a golden light, and peace came upon Mayor Samwise as he took it from the hand of the King.

"This is the Star of the Dúnedain. Ever has it been an heirloom of the North-kingdom, and ever shall it remain here an heirloom of your house and of the Shire."

And Queen Arwen said to Elanor daughter of Samwise, called 'the Fair', "we go now to Lake Evendim, whither I shall take you if you will come, and you shall be my maid of honour."

For a time they remained in the North-kingdom and when they returned to Gondor, Master Samwise and his wife and Elanor rode with them and dwelt with King Elessar and Queen Arwen for a year, leaving Tolman Cotton as deputy Mayor in Samwise's stead, for he was then newly elected for the third time.

It was after the end of his seventh office that his beloved wife, Rose, died on Mid-year's Day. On September 22 of that year, Samwise rode out from Bag End and spent some days with his daughter Elanor. On a morning when the last of the summer clung to the air and the clouds were edged with gold, he rode accompanied only by Elanor towards the Towers.

At their base, he stopped and looked back for a long time at the Shire. Then he drew from his side the Red Book which Bilbo and Frodo had begun, and which he had finished, and gave it to Elanor.

"The story is finally done, now. Or at least, my part in it is over. The rest belongs to you and to those who will follow you." And he passed beyond the Towers and went west to the Grey Havens. There he found Círdan the Shipwright, waiting. Silently they boarded a white ship and as it drifted from the Havens Samwise watched Middle-earth recede until it was out of sight, and it seemed to him that a veil passed across his eyes, but a sweet breeze blew when he turned to the West and the veil was lifted.

-

In the spring and the year 1484, by Shire Reckoning, a message came from Rohan to Buckland that King Éomer wished to see Master Meriadoc Holdwine once again. Meriadoc was then old (102) but still hale. He took counsel with his friend the Thain, and soon after they handed over their goods and offices to their sons and rode away over the Sarn Ford, and they were not seen again in the Shire. They came to Edoras and there they remained until the autumn.

Master Meriadoc sat beside King Éomer, now very old by the reckoning of the Men of the Mark, as he passed the last hours of his life.

"The Mark prospers, Master Holdwine, and I have seen great pain and fear moved to peace and love. Children grow who have no fear of the night, for whom the Shadow in the East is but a tale we greybeards tell to frighten them. There will soon be none left who remember the fear of the days we lived, but I will die content that I have done my part and seen a better world for my sons and their children."

With that, he closed his eyes and breathed no more, and when Master Meriadoc and Thain Peregrin departed the Golden Hall, a third line of tombs had begun on the Barrowfield, that of King Éomer, sister-son of King Theoden, and of his line to come. But Meriadoc and Peregrin did not return to the Shire, but passed into Gondor and spent what short years were left to them in that Realm.

To Gondor also came Legolas and Gimli and so all of the Fellowship who yet remained in Midde-earth came together for the last time, but as Gimli had long ago fortold on the parting of the Fellowship at the Treegarth of Orthanc, never had they all been gathered since that day, for Frodo and Gandalf had departed from the Grey Havens too soon.

"And we meet again, Master Hobbits, and as tall and strong you look as ever, if a bit greyer in the hair," said Gimli, "but I at least have been in Minas Tirith often as the years have gone. I went first to my cousin and bade him give me one hundred dwarves, sturdy and skillful. For many years we laboured and wrought for Minas Tirith a gate of surpassing beauty. Mithril and steel entwined in strength unseen in the lands of Men.

"A part of the Dwarf-folk of Erebor stayed in the south with me and King Éomer gave to me Lordship over the Glittering Caves. They shine as a jewel in the earth, their natural beauty carefully tended by loving hands. Ah, it was hard to leave, Master Hobbits, but a great part of this world I have seen in the company of my friend."

Legolas smiled upon Gimli. "For my part, I brought south Elves out of the Greenwood who have made Minas Tirith green and growing. They dwell still in Ithilien and it is once again the fairest country in all the westlands."

There in the fair city of Minas Tirith and in the company of friends, Master Meriadoc and Thain Peregrin dwelt until they died and were laid in Rath Dínen among the great of Gondor.

-

And when Aragorn laid down his head and died, being then one hundred and ninety, and Arwen went forth from the House and passed away to the land of Lórien, a great sorrow fell upon the city and the beds of Master Meriadoc and Thain Peregrin were set beside the bed of the great king.

In Ithilien, Legolas built a grey ship and brought Gimli with him to the quay. "The wind is from the Sea, and the gulls cry. Verily! will I come to them, if you, will come with me."

And Gimli was torn, for Dwarves are of the earth and of Middle-earth, and the Sea had no call for him. "Whither should I go that there will be a greeting for a Dwarf, Master Elf!" he cried. "And what bones does that Land have for the likes of me? If they should even accept my presence which I doubt."

"I will speak for you, Master Dwarf. And the Lady Galadriel remembers, and she will speak also. If you will but come, you shall indeed find welcome in the West."

When the time came for Legolas to sail, though he was sorely tried, Gimli went with him for he had a desire to see again the beauty and grace of Galadriel. But also he went for love of Legolas, his friend of so many years, and it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it; and it may be that Galadriel, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter and when that ship passed an end was come in the Middle-earth of the Fellowship of the Ring.


End file.
